What does a surgeon owe the world in exchange for rare expertise? Dr. Andrew Jacono has answered that question with years of donated operations.
His view is that developing mastery in complex facial reconstruction creates two things at once: opportunity and responsibility. A surgeon with that skill can change lives far beyond an affluent client base. Choosing not to would leave that ability unused where it is needed most.
Putting the Belief to Work
The dual board-certified facial plastic surgeon has turned that conviction into concrete numbers. More than 100 domestic violence survivors have received free facial reconstructions from him through FACE TO FACE, a project of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He serves as its senior advisor.
Overseas, Dr. Andrew Jacono has operated on more than 750 children. His missions with Healing the Children, the HUGS (Help Us Give Smiles) Foundation, and THAI Children have reached Colombia, Ecuador, Thailand, and Vietnam. Patients arrive with cleft lip and palate, microtia, facial tumors, and burn scars.
Passing It On
He also teaches this outlook. As Fellowship Director for the academy, Dr. Andrew Jacono trains fellows in surgical technique and in the ethics of serving people who lack access to care. His appointments at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and as Section Head of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at North Shore University Hospital give him a platform with medical students and residents too.
The philosophy has a clear origin. During medical school, he watched reconstructive surgery change both the face and the social life of a girl teased for her cleft lip and palate.
Today he keeps a Park Avenue practice where his patients include celebrities. He sees no contradiction there. In his framework, elite ability and humanitarian service support each other. Success gets measured by technical results and also by the lives reconstructed, the trauma erased, and the futures made possible. Dr. Andrew Jacono continues to add to that count every year. Refer to this article to learn more.
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